Kylo Ren is waving his lightsaber in my face.
Amanda Kooser/CNET/Facebook
In case you haven’t noticed, “Star Wars: The Force Awakens” opens worldwide this week. You may have stumbled across a few product tie-ins over the last month or so, like some hairy Chewbacca Crocs and a Darth Vader lightsaber selfie stick. Maybe you went to Facebook and told all your buddies, “No spoilers!” and unfriended anybody who defied you. But Facebook isn’t a safe haven. Suddenly, people are sporting a shimmering lightsaber across their profile pictures.
Facebook has a history of offering up profile photo changes, whether it’s adding a crown to your pic in recognition of Kansas City’s World Series baseball win or supporting a cause like marriage equality by switching to a pride image. Star Wars is now on the list of ways to customize your profile picture.
There are two Star Wars lightsaber options, neither of which is very subtle. The first option is to have Kylo Ren’s controversial red lightsaber with the two little lightsabers for a crossguard. The energy emanates from it and it just looks angry. The second is a cool-blue lightsaber like Finn packs in the new film. Pick whichever one you think complements your profile photo the best. I went Kylo Ren.

I can’t say my altered profile pic is really that great. It looks like Kylo Ren is standing offscreen, taking my picture while refusing to put down his weapon.
You may see an option to change your profile picture in your timeline or through a post on one of the Star Wars Facebook fan pages. Another way to get to the right place is to visit Facebook’s Game Face profile changer tool and then select “Star Wars” from the drop-down menu.
One of the nicer features of the photo customization tool is that you can choose how long to run the altered image. Choose from 1 hour, one day, one week or “never” — never stop, that is. There’s no reason you can’t keep a lightsaber on your profile all the way until the second new Star Wars movie comes out.

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